New wave cimematheque: Burton Theatre screens indie, cult, foreign films in Midtown

A grandfather, a father, and a son, are all linked together by recurring motifs. The dim grandfather, an orderly during World War Two, lives in his bizarre fantasies; he desires love. The huge father seeks success as a top athlete "speed eater" in the post-war pro-Soviet era. The grandson, a meek, small-boned taxidermist, yearns for something greater: immortality. He wants to create the most perfect work of art of all time by stuffing his own torso. Historical facts and surrealism become intertwined as grotesque magical realism.

Taxidermia is a generational triptych that begins during World War II and ends in the present (we think) and whose parts dissolve into one another. The first two are adapted from stories by the Hungarian writer Lajos Parti Nagy; director György Pálfi contributed the final segment. To say any more would go too far in spoiling your fun. Read Metro Times critic Corey Hall's review here.

See Taxidermia Nov. 6-8 (it also screens the following week; check full November schedule for details) at its Detroit premiere at Midtown's Burton Theatre, 3420 Cass Avenue, Detroit.